Corus R5: Anand defeats Leko, takes sole lead

The Corus Chess Tournament 2006 is being held from 13-29 January 2006 in Wijk aan Zee, Holland. The venue is the De Moriaan Community Centre (Dorpsduinen 4, 1949 EG Wijk aan Zee) and the nearby bar de Zon. Commentary is available in the Corus Chess Pavilion, on the Village Green in Wijk aan Zee.

Round five

Grandmaster Group A

All games in PGN

Grandmaster Group B
All games in PGN

Grandmaster Group C

All games in PGN

Roung Five report

Anand-Leko: At last year's Corus Peter Leko handed Vishy Anand his only loss and took clear first place with a +4 score. This year Anand took revenge on Leko with a dominating win, moving back into clear first place in the process. Anand is already at +3 after five rounds and Leko is now at -1.

It was a miserable affair for the Hungarian, who has lost more than his share of horrible games lately. Leko played a Najdorf instead of the Sveshnikov he is known for, but did fine out of the opening. His troubles started with some knight wandering while, Anand went about steadily ruining the black structure.

Anand,V (2792) - Leko,P (2740) [B90]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (5), 19.01.2006
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3 Be7 8.Bc4 0-0 9.0-0 Be6 10.Bb3 Nc6 11.Bg5 Nd7 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 13.Nd5 Qd8 14.c3 Na5 15.Re1 Rc8 16.h3 Nb6 17.Nxb6 Qxb6 18.Bxe6 fxe6 19.Re2 Rc6 20.Qd3 Qc7 21.Rd1 Nc4 22.b3 Nb6 23.c4 Nc8 24.Red2 h6 25.Qe2 Kh7 26.h4 Qb6 27.h5 Qc5 28.Ne1 Rc7 29.Nd3 Qc6

The black knight has moved all the way back on c8, where it now has a nice view of Anand's structural demolition: 30.c5! After this Black is picked apart by Anand's ruthless precision. 30.c5 Ne7 31.Qg4 Rf6 32.b4 d5 33.Nxe5 Qa4 34.Qg3 Rc8 35.Ng4 Rf7 36.Qd6 Rcf8 37.Qxe6 (or 37.Ne5) Qxb4 38.exd5 Qxc5 39.d6 Nc6 40.d7 Nd8 41.Qe4+ Qf5 42.Re2 Qxe4 43.Rxe4 b5 44.f3 a5 45.Ne5 Rf6 46.Ng6 Rg8 47.Re8 Rf7 48.Rd5 b4 49.Ne7 1-0. [Click to replay]

"You've got to grasp the pieces with all five fingers" – Vishy Anand
explaining to Peter Leko what he did wrong in their round five game.

Ivanchuk-Kamsky: Vassily Ivanchuk moved into a tie for second (with Topalov) by adding to Gata Kamsky's misery. White got a slight pull into the endgame and slowly squeezed the position across the board. Kamsky accumulated too many weaknesses and when his king got caught in the crossfire material loss became inevitable. The spectating Garry Kasparov has given up criticizing Kamsky's play at this point, saying only that "Kamsky is from a different era and it shows."

Former child prodigy Etienne Bacrot (right) about to come a cropper
against the contemporary (record-breaking) prodigy Sergey Karjakin (left)

Karjakin-Bacrot: Brooklynite Kamsky is in last place, but he's not the only player who has lost three in a row ("castling long" it is sometimes called: 0-0-0). Former youngest-ever GM Etienne Bacrot got stomped by the current holder of that record, Sergey Karjakin, to drop his third straight. The Frenchman played a theoretically dubious pawn grab in the opening and quickly found out why the ChessBase Megabase gives his 19...fxe4 a "?!" Bacrot may have missed the quiet 29.Bd2!, leaving Black with an extra piece for the moment but unable to hold it. Black tried giving up his queen but Karjakin mopped up like a janitor at Grand Central Station.

Topalov-Mamedyarov: This game was singled out by a Kasparov as an excellent fight (the other decisive games of the round were too one-sided). Topalov yet again gave up material, this time an exchange sacrifice to shatter the black structure. The FIDE champ grabbed a few pawns, but the young Azerbaijani, who is playing at Corus as a late substitute for Vladimir Kramnik, found an ingenious stroke to at least equalize.

Topalov,V (2801) - Mamedyarov,S (2709) [C87]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (5), 19.01.2006
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 d6 7.c3 Bg4 8.d3 Nd7 9.h3 Bh5 10.Be3 h6 11.g4 Bg6 12.Nbd2 h5 13.g5 Nb6 14.Bb3 h4 15.a4 d5 16.a5 d4 17.cxd4 exd4 18.Bf4 Nd7 19.Rc1 Nc5 20.Rxc5 Bxc5 21.Ba4 Kf8 22.Bxc6 bxc6 23.Qa4 Kg8 24.Qxc6 Bb4 25.Rc1 Bxa5 26.Nc4 Bb6 27.Nxb6 cxb6 28.Bc7 Qc8 29.Kg2 b5 30.Nxd4 Qe8 31.Qxe8+ Rxe8 32.Ra1 Rc8 33.Bd6 Kh7 34.Rxa6 Rc1 35.Nxb5 Rd1 36.Ra3 Rc8 37.Bf4 Rc2 38.Rb3

38...Rxd3! This leaves the white rook in a permanent pin – a rather unusual theme to see in a game, unusual enough that Jan Timman once dedicated a New In Chess article to it. Fritz 9 comes up with a convoluted plan to work the knight around to h2 to protect the rook, but there are no winning chances with all the pawns on the same side. The rook defends easily against the two pieces. 39.Rxd3 Bxe4+ 40.Rf3 Rxb2 41.Nd6 Bd5 42.Nf5 Rb4 43.Bd6 Ra4 44.Be7 Kg6 45.Nxh4+ Rxh4 46.Kg3 ½-½. [Click to replay]

Aronian-Adams: World Cup winner Levon Aronian once again found himself up a pawn, but for no good reason he decided to give it back to Mickey Adams and soon found himself with losing chances in a Q+R endgame.

Aronian,L (2752) - Adams,Mi (2707) [E46]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (5), 19.01.2006
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Nge2 d5 6.a3 Be7 7.cxd5 exd5 8.b4 Bf5 9.f3 h6 10.Ng3 Bg6 11.Bd3 Bd6 12.Nf5 Nc6 13.Qc2 Bxf5 14.Bxf5 a5 15.b5 Ne7 16.Bh3 Nh7 17.g3 c5 18.bxc6 bxc6 19.0-0 c5 20.dxc5 Bxc5 21.Kh1 Ng5 22.Bg2 Rc8 23.f4 Ne4 24.Bxe4 dxe4 25.Rd1 Qe8 26.Qxe4 Rc6 27.Qf3 Qa8 28.Rd3 Rd8 29.Rxd8+ Qxd8 30.Rb1 Bxa3 31.Bxa3 Rxc3 32.Rd1 Qe8 33.Bxe7 Qxe7 34.Qa8+ Kh7 35.e4 Re3 36.e5 Qb4 37.Qd5 a4 38.f5

This looked like a good place to look for a win for England. The official site suggests 38...Qg4, but we like 38...Re2! even better. White has no good defense against ..Qb2, although it's no easy task to calculate the dangers of e6 and f6 while in time trouble. 39.f6 Qb2 40.Kg1 Rxh2 41.Qf3 Re2! 42.fxg7 Qxe5 and Black is winning. 39.Rxe1 Qxe1+ 40.Kg2 Qe2+ 41.Kg1 Qe1+ 42.Kg2 Qe2+ 43.Kg1 a3 44.Qxf7 Qe1+ 45.Kg2 Qxe5 46.Qa7 Qb2+ 47.Kh3 Kg8 48.Qe3 Kf8 49.Qc5+ Ke8 50.Qc8+ Ke7 51.Qc7+ Kf6 52.Qd6+ Kxf5 53.Qd5+ Kf6 54.Qd6+ Kf7 55.Qd7+ Kg6 56.Qd3+ Kf7 57.Qd7+ Kf6 ½-½. [Click to replay]

Tiviakov-Sokolov: The all home-team battle saw a flare-up of pretty tactics that burned out just as quickly.

Tiviakov,S (2669) - Sokolov,Iv (2689) [C77]
Corus A Wijk aan Zee NED (5), 19.01.2006
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Qe2 b5 6.Bb3 Be7 7.c3 d6 8.a4 Bd7 9.0-0 0-0 10.d4 Qe8 11.axb5 axb5 12.Rxa8 Qxa8 13.Rd1 h6 14.Nbd2 b4 15.Nc4 Na5 16.Nxa5 Qxa5 17.Bd2 bxc3 18.Bxc3 Qa8

19.Nxe5 dxe5 20.dxe5 Bg4 21.f3 Qxe4. This almost looks like an optical illusion. After such creativity it's almost a shame no one won the game. 22.Qf2 Qb7 23.Bc2 Nd5 24.fxg4 Nxc3 25.bxc3 Qb6 26.Qxb6 cxb6 27.Rd7 Re8 28.Bb3 Bc5+ 29.Kf1 Re7 30.Rd8+ Kh7 31.h4 g6 32.Rd5 Kg7 33.g3 Ba3 34.h5 ½-½. [Click to replay]

Gelfand-van Wely: The top Dutch GM bravely played the Grunfeld against famed Grunfeld-basher Boris Gelfand and lived to tell the tale. The Dutchman's sacrificial opening improvement 15...b6 gave up the exchange but led to exchanges and a strong bishop that Gelfand had no desire to tackle. Nice prep from Loek and the ball is back in White's court in this line.

Groups B + C

Carlsen moved into a share of the lead with Naiditsch after beating the struggling Beliavsky in just 20 moves. When asked how this could happen to a former Soviet champion like Big Al, Kasparov answered "Age, 37 years." That's the difference between Carlsen's 15 and Beliavsky's 52. True, although Black's meandering bishop maneuvers didn't help much.

Poor Jobava hung a key pawn right before the time control against Motylev. 39...e4? 40.Re8! threatens to win a piece with Rxh8+ and Bf6+ so the e-pawn had to be abandoned. After that the former Russian champion converted the rook endgame with confidence against the demoralized Georgian.

Down in the C Group, Hopman suffered a delusion against Visser to lose abruptly. He thought he was mating with a multiple piece sacrifice only to find out he was the one who would be mated.

Hopman,P (2332) - Visser,Y (2485) [C05]
Corus C Wijk aan Zee NED (5), 19.01.2006
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.c3 c5 6.f4 Nc6 7.Ndf3 a5 8.Bd3 cxd4 9.cxd4 a4 10.Ne2 a3 11.b3 Nb4 12.Bb1 Nb6 13.0-0 Bd7 14.Nc3 Be7 15.Qe1 g6 16.Bd2 Rc8 17.Nd1 Nc2 18.Bxc2 Rxc2 19.Ne3 Rc8 20.Ba5 Bb5 21.Rf2 Bd3 22.Rc1 Ra8 23.b4 0-0 24.Rc3 Bb5 25.Rxa3 Ra6 26.Rc3 Qa8 27.Bxb6 Rxb6 28.a3 Ra6 29.Qc1 Bxb4 30.f5 Rxa3

31.Nc2?? White was doubtlessly counting on 31...Rxc3 32.Qh6 exf5 and now 33.Ng5 leads to a forced mate. Or doesn't it? We leave you to find the refutation. Hopman saw it and bailed out with 33.g4, but it was over after 33..Rxf3 Rxf3 34.Rxf3 fxg4 35.Rf2 Be7 36.Ne3 Qa1+ 0-1. [Click to replay]

Playchess TV

Boris Gelfand talking to Yasser Seirawan in Playchess TV

Interviewing top Dutch women's player Peng Zhaoqin

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Schedule, results and reports

When and how to watch The games of the Corus Chess Tournament start at 13:30h Central European Time, which is GMT + 1h, or 7:30 a.m. New York and 15:30 Moscow (you can check for other locations here). There is live coverage on the official web site (links at the bottom of the page) and on Playchess.com, where audio and video commentary will be provided by GM Yasser Seiravan, live from Wijk aan Zee. Don't miss it!

Links

• Tournament web site
• Corus web site
• All ChessBase reports so far
• Where is Wijk aan Zee?
• Wijk aan Zee 2004 reports
• Wijk aan Zee 2005 reports